


Co-Orbital

by Enchantable



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 04:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19456849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: “Were you going to tell me before you left?”Michael doesn’t have an answer.“I wasn’t planning on leaving at all.”





	Co-Orbital

**Author's Note:**

> Original Prompt: when alex says "i shouldn't have left you behind" could you write something where he doesn't

****He’s still blinded by tears as he maneuvers back to the parking spot.

His hand really, really hurts.

Max had focused on Isobel and gotten swept up in the lie, which Michael gets. He instigated it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to know that Max still puts Isobel first. They always put each other first. Michael usually doesn’t let himself think about it too much but as he doubles over his hand and makes a pathetic noise as he realizes the acetone is gone, he lets the long buried pain take him away. If there was ever a time to wallow, this is it. All his dreams slip away one by one. Not slip. They break. That hammer has fallen again and again and again. His dreams, his family, his body, even his heart. All are broken. 

He can take a minute to cry over it. 

And whoever is tapping at his window can fuck off.

He lifts his head and wonders if all of this has broken his mind too. Standing on the other side is Alex. Just as tear streaked and just as upset. He’s crying still. Fat tears that streak is face black. At least the red is gone. Michael stares at him and Alex points.Michael locked the doors. He reaches out and undoes it. There is a trick to opening the door and he lifts and nudges it open, just enough for Alex to fling it open the rest of the way. He pulls Michael forward and Michael falls gratefully into his arms, cool air rushing through his lungs. Air that’s scented with Alex. His forehead presses into Alex’s collar bone as Alex holds him up. He’s still shaking with sobs but he’s steady and firm and Michael can finally relax.

“What—“

“It’s okay,” Alex says, “I told my dad I’d enlist. He let me go.”

There’s something wrong with that, but his pain addled brain doesn’t comprehend. He just really wants to stay in Alex’s arms. Alex takes a deep breath and blows it out, steadier than the last few. He keeps an arm around Michael and turns so he can see his hand. Alex knows that Michael won’t go to the hospital and Michael hazily thinks that if Alex has faith in him to trust him, maybe his life isn’t ruined.

“Lets get off the road and let me help,” He says.

“Can we take my car?” Michael asks, pathetically desperate for the shred of home he has.

“Of course we can,” Alex says and kisses his curls.

They go to a motel and hunker down in the room. Alex tends to his hand as best he can while Michael tries to not scream at the slightest touch. He winds up just making pathetic noises he muffles in a pillow as Alex at least gets his dislocated fingers in their proper slots. When he looks up, Alex is equally tearful at the sight of him and when their eyes meet, they dissolve into fresh waves of sobs, clinging to each other on the bed.

“I’m sorry, I never should have brought you there,” Alex says.

“I don’t care, I wanted to be with you,” Michael insists and closes his eyes, “I want to be with you,” he corrects, “I want you.”

Alex kisses him with trembling, salt stained lips.

Michael tries not to weep.

* * *

“Michael.”

Michael turns around quickly at the sight of the man in camo print, his hair shaved close to the scalp and anything else that would define him as, well, Alex complete gone. Except for the fact that it is Alex. And the only unacceptable thing is the nervousness in his eyes as he looks at him and tries to smile.

Michael throws himself into his arms with a strangled sound.

“I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow,” he says.

“There was a storm—“ he kisses Alex who sinks into the kiss, “we left early.”

Michael keeps kissing him as Alex kneads into his lower back, ignoring anyone who looks at them. He pulls his lips away and reaches up, running his hand over the dusting of hair on Alex’s head.

“It’ll grow back,” Alex says softly.

“You look good,” Michael promises him.

Alex smiles.

* * *

Alex’s features pull together after a week of not moving.

“Alex, Alex—“ Michael cups his cheek and holds his hand, “you’re okay, you’re on a ventilator. Don’t fight it, just relax.”

Alex fights for a moment and then relaxes. His eyes open and it’s the most beautiful thing Michael’s ever seen. It’s the first time he’s smiled since the last time they talked. Alex tries to smile and Michael lets out a wet laugh, curving his thumb across Alex’s lip. He has to sit back at the doctors work and all he can do is hold Alex’s hand and stay close, letting him know he’s there however he can. Finally though Alex has coughed up the ventilator. He looks at Michael.

“You’re here,” He rasps.

“I’m here,” Michael says, “I’m right here,” he looks at the doctor who smiles sally, “listen to me, while you were out you had an infection. They had to take a part of your leg.”

Alex frowns and looks down. He’s drugged or maybe it hasn’t hit him because aside from a quickening of his heart rate, he just looks and tightens his grip on Michael.

“I can’t walk,” he says.

“Yes, yes you can,” Michael says firmly, “I’m already working with some friends on a new leg. You’re gonna be lapping me in no time,” he fumbles at the lost look in Alex’s eyes, “til then you’re just gonna have to lean on me.”

Alex looks confused and Michael kisses the furrow between his eyebrows and then his cheeks and finally his lips. He shifts onto the bed and settles his hand on Alex’s knee, missing limb to scarred flesh. When he kisses Alex again, this time Alex presses into the kiss, just enough to let Michael know he’s kissing him back. 

“That doesn’t sound too awful,” Alex chokes out and Michael pulls him close. 

“I promise it won’t be.”

* * *

“A parade?” Alex frowns and grips his crutch, “why?”

“Dunno, you got a Purple Heart,” Michael points out as he puts eggs in front of both of them, “I can call her off. We’re related.”

“Lets just let her do it,” Alex says, though he’s uncomfortable with the whole idea. He sits down and they eat in silence before Michael drags his chair around and sits in front of him. Frustration is painted all over Alex’s face, “do we have to?”

“Yes,” Michael says, “look if we figure this out now it’ll be easier in the long run,” he steadies his prosthetic as Alex undoes it and looks down at the residual limb like it’s a personal weakness. 

“How can you stand doing everything for me?” He questions.

Michael looks up at him. Alex chews his bottom lip and Michael sets the prosthetic aside, scooting forward and putting his hands on Alex’s thighs. Alex finally looks up at him. They’ve been in a long distance relationship for ten years and the possibility of them being together in the same physical location makes Michael dizzy with hope. 

“Because I want to be with you,” he says and Alex, brilliant man that he is, smiles at the reference, “I don’t care about anything else.”

Alex leans into the kiss.

Then Alex deepens the kiss and pulls Michael closer, til Michael is straddling him on the chair. The chairs are second hand and definitely not intended for this much weight but Michael uses his power to augment then and grinds forward at Alex’s command, enjoying the sound of his moan. 

Their argument and his prosthetic are forgotten for a good long while.

* * *

No.

Nonononono

“My dad thinks you’re an alien. Is he right?” Alex asks coldly.

“I can explain,” Michael begins.

“You’re an alien,” Alex says. 

“Alex!”

“This whole time—“ he sits down only to immediately get to his feet. Never in his worse nightmares did Michael think Alex’s dad knew or would tell Alex first. Alex looks distraught and Michael can’t blame him. Ten years is a long time. He’s never seen Alex look at him like this. They’ve always been in this together, “Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“I wanted to!” Michael says desperately, “I didn’t know how to—“

“You tell me!” Alex shouts back, “you just say what you are! I thought we knew each other—“ something clicks into place, “is that why you didn’t mind taking care of me?”

“What? No! Of course not!” Michael is on his feet, “I took care of you because I love you. We love each other,” Alex presses his lips together and Michael hasn’t felt this sick since the day he got his hand smashed, “Don’t we?”

“Yes but it’s not that simple!” Alex say, “I love you and I don’t know what species you are.”

“But you know who I am!” Michael argues back. 

Alex knows him better than anyone. He knows everything except this one thing. Alex paces but he doesn’t leave. Which is what Michael needs but he doesn’t know if it’s what Alex needs. Michael feels a wave of desperation crash over him as he approaches Alex. He stops and holds his hands up, telling him that he’s not going to come closer.

“Max, Isobel and I swore that we wouldn’t tell,” he says, “I couldn’t do that to them.”

“Like how I told my father I would join the Air Force,” Alex says.

Michael nods. 

Alex scrubs at his face. Then he goes into the corner and comes back with something he’s not supposed to have. He holds it out and whatever is happening, Alex gives him a hard look and proves how well he does know Michael.

“What is it?”

“Part of a spaceship,” Michael says and the truth feels like salt he’s rubbing into a fresh wound. Alex looks at him and takes a step forward.

“Where’s the rest?”

“In a bunker,” Michael tells him.

Alex nods and turns away. Michael sets the glass down like it’s burned him. Ten years is a long time to be working on something. Whether it’s a secret ship or serving your country. He can feel the divide between them getting bigger with every second. Desperately he fumbles for the right words.

“The spaceship, the pieces, when you put them together the molecules join. They want to be together,” he says. 

When Alex turns around, he stays in the shadows and it’s less like the glass of a spaceship and more like the glass of the window between them. This isn’t going to be as easy as opening a tricky door. Alex looks from him to the glass and back again.

“Were you going to tell me before you left?”

Michael doesn’t have an answer.

“I wasn’t planning on leaving at all.”

* * *

Alex stares at the wreckage as Michael smashes the last piece and the turns around.

“What—“

“This isn’t who I am,” Michael says, “I’m not going anywhere. This isn’t me,” he says, “I’m not an alien and you’re not an airman. We’re Michael and Alex, that’s the only shit that matters to me.”

Alex looks around at the broken glass and then at Michael whose breathing hard and clutching a sledgehammer. He’ll do anything to make Alex see that this isn’t the most important part of him. That they have been in this together. And the only way he can fathom doing that is showing. Not telling. Alex is silent as he looks around and Michael wants, no, Michael needs him to say something. Alex has texted him but he hasn’t been home in a week. In town but not home isn’t something Michael can stand. 

“I—“ Alex swallows and pulls a roll of paper out of his back pocket, “I found this,” he explains. 

Michael takes the paper and rolls it out, realizing it’s the actual blueprints for his ship. He had it right but still. A hollow sound escapes him and he looks at Alex through tear filled eyes, waiting to hear him say Michael should get off the planet, the alien equivalent of ‘go to hell’. But Alex takes a step closer to him.

“I know you hate leaving projects unfinished.”

Michael’s head flies up to see Alex much closer than he thought he was. He really did a great job on that prosthetic. Alex cups his cheeks and brushes under his eyes with his thumbs. Michael knocks his hands aside and grabs him, not caring as Alex hugs him back and another piece of the spaceship shatters under the sledgehammer. 

He doesn’t need a spaceship.

He’s already home. 


End file.
